Bestia
Among the various spooks, demons and killers that are said to roam The Highlands, La Bestia is said to be the most bizarre and yet real of them all. The story of a monster that descends from the hills covered in a cow's skin, to waylay caravans and cattle drives. Some say its some mad Super Mutant, others a comanchero capitalizing on the legends and superstitions of the Highlands. Whatever it is, it has made more than a few notable appearances throughout the Highlands to attack and kill travelers, lawmen and various other wasters. Legend The most accepted version of the origin of Bestia is that at some point in 2232 there was an ambush of a gang of Comancheros somewhere in The Highlands by a group of lawmen, bounty hunters, mercenaries and hired guns after the group of comancheros (often referred to as the Jackson Party) had attacked a water shipment from New Hebbron that was headed towards the thirsty farming town of Wrecker's Gorge. The attack had led to the town hiring the pack of enforcers to track down the Comancheros and put a stop to their activities. During the ambush, the Comancheros were decimated by the lawmen with most of the 23 comancheros being killed in the crossfire. The survivors of the initial onslaught were ruthlessly hunted down until only one remained. As it does quite often in these sort of stories it began to rain and the sole surviving Comanchero ducked into one of the Highlands' numerous caves. Inside the dark recesses of the cave he sat, wounded and fearing for his life, at first he tried praying but realizing that God wouldn't help a wicked man like himself turned to God's counterpart; Satan. He promised Satan his soul if he would spare him his life and allow him to live. Much to the Comanchero's horror and surprise Satan appeared and accepted his offer, however, Satan being the wicked being he has put a twist to the deal, to heal the Comanchero's wounds he had the wounds covered by bits of an old Brahmin corpse sitting at the back of the cave, giving the Comanchero his hideous appearance. As for the Comanchero, he didn't walk away from the brush with Satan with his sanity, when Satan appeared he opened a portal to hell and the Comanchero was subjected to all the horrors that lay within, driving him mad, this coupled with his disfigurement drove him to the breaking point. After this meeting he promptly picked up one of the Brahmin's old bones and left the cave, descending upon the unsuspecting lawmen with a fury, beating and bashing most of the posse to death. Those who survived retold the tale to their employers, friends, compatriots, drinking buddies and so on. Thus the story persists even to this day, however, more than a few people have had a run in with Bestia over the years, mostly cattlemen, bounty hunters and wasters moving through The Highlands to avoid the hazards of other roads to allow his macabre tale to perpetuate. Appearance The appearance of Bestia has been rather consistently recounted by most who have encountered the monster. Many will often say that his appearance is usually preceded by a rather foul odor permeating throughout the air, this likely being due to his rotting cow hide that is a part of him. When he does appear he is generally said to be about 7 foot and a massive, mountain of a man. He lunges at his target from cover, usually in the form of a bush or bunching of trees, then swings wildly with his club made up of the leg bones of that dead Brahmin he got his trademark look from. Most of his body is covered in chunks of hide, with some sections of his skin being exposed as the old hide falls apart, however, his head has remained consistently covered by the hollowed out neck and head of the Brahmin. The head of the Brahmin itself is said to have no eyes, although some claim that it does indeed have eyes and that they stare wildly at the victim and rolling around wildly when not on the attack. As for the club, it is made of the two leg bones from a Brahmin that have been binded together at the joints. On the end of said club is a medium sized rock whose use hardly needs explaining. Activities La Bestia's activities are hard to pinpoint exactly, besides harassing the local ranchers and merchants Bestia doesn't seem to do much else. Many people who have lived in the vicinity of the attacks by Bestia have reported a large figure prowling in the darkness, some even report seeing the monster staring into their windows at late hours of the night. However, that's all he seems to do, he doesn't attempt to break in and seems content to simply observe people. On the roads he is quite a terror, attacking cattle drives and merchant caravans, bashing and beating anyone caught by him to death with his massive club, gunfire rarely seems to affect him as even bullets that don't bounce off his head don't seem to phase him. One particular former resident of The Highlands; Gaucho Gomez claims to have shot the beast at least a dozen times with his minigun and it still kept coming. Yet the real question lies in what happens to the various items that are left by his slain victims, many people who find the wreckage of caravans and cattle drives often say that they've been cleaned out. With this in mind it has spread around that Bestia isn't a monster but rather some kind of black marketeers, selling his captured items on the black market. Category:Characters Category:Tamaulipas Category:Mexico